News

This year’s proxy season will once again bring attention to shifting investor priorities, with environmental and social (E&S) issues at the forefront of engagement discussions and shareholder resolutions. Changes over the past year to the policies and voting practices of several major index investors, along with a bold pronouncement by BlackRock that corporations should “serve a social purpose,” underscore this progression.

There have been many days where we wake up planning to have a very productive day. We start our day thinking of all the work that will get done on our to-do lists, only to find ourselves distracted and unproductive.

The recent climate of distrust in politics and media has taken its toll, and businesses are paying the price. It doesn’t matter whether your company steers clear of politics and keeps a low profile during heated cultural debates.

Three years following implementation of mandatory disclosure of women on boards and in executive officer positions, the new rules have marginally improved female representation. The percentage of women holding board seats increased slightly to 14 percent last year, up from 11 percent in 2015, while the percentage of issuers having at least one woman on the board increased to 61 percent in 2017 from 49 percent in 2015.

U.S. companies face a dizzying array of challenges, including from disruptive technologies and cybersecurity threats; economic and geopolitical uncertainties; climate change and evolving sustainability metrics; and questions about corporate culture, sexual harassment and ethics.

If you’re an individual contributor who also manages the work of other employees, you’re what is called a Player-Coach. It’s a very different kind of leadership model than what usually gets talked about, although ironically, Player-Coach is one of the most commonly employed leadership models.

The risk with investing in poorly governed companies is clear and significant. Bad corporate governance is an express highway to losses and, sometimes, big failures. Every stakeholder loses out. Yet, awareness and voluntary acceptance of best practices never been forthcoming. The need to regulate corporate governance is clear.